This year marks the 50th anniversary of Ultimate Frisbee, a sport that began at a New Jersey high school in 1968. It is becoming a widely popular game, as evidenced by last weekend’s national TV coverage of college playoffs. In Harvard, ultimate is growing at all different levels, from a kids summer camp to a high school club to an adult league.Ultimate is thriving in Harvard
The game is fast moving but relatively uncomplicated and easy to follow. An ultimate game begins with two seven-member teams lined up across opposing end zones of a soccer-size field. A player “pulls” the disc and sends it flying down the field for an opposing team member to pick up and try to pass up the field to score. If the disc is knocked down at any point, it’s a turnover. When a player scores, that team lines up along that end zone, marked by orange cones, takes a minute or so to set its defensive strategy, and makes the pull. Then the teams are on the run again.
On Friday, May 25, the high school Harvard Ultimate Club (HUC) played its final regular game of the season at Charlie Waite Field, beating Wachusett 15–3 to end with a record of 15–2. HUC will play in an all-day tournament in Northampton June 2.
Patrick Flanagan dives for the disc. (Courtesy photo)
Coach Don Phillips attributed the day’s win and the successful season to the experience of the HUC players. Most of the team has been playing together for the past three years, and the players have become comfortable in their positions and skillful in setting up plays. The players themselves decide who will cover which player on the opposing team or whether they will form a zone defense—moves they have tested in practices. Phillips said success also comes from the players’ love of the sport. He said the team should stay strong for the next two years, but with few experienced sophomores and freshmen, the team will need an influx of players to rebuild. There are seven middle-schoolers who have just registered with USA Ultimate, a requisite for joining a team, so the future looks promising, Phillips said.
A few upperclassmen shared some observations before the game against Wachusett. Senior Matthew Canning, in his first year of ultimate, said he used to play tennis but wanted to try a sport with more teamwork. Ultimate “gives a team atmosphere, which is enjoyable,” he said. He admitted it can get a bit tense when you have the disc and the defense is waving arms and counting to 10 to mark the alloted seconds to stand with the disc, but he said there’s usually enough time for a teammate to cut clear.
Competitive but self-refereed
Patrick Flanagan, a junior who has been playing since eighth grade, said ultimate is not a contact sport, but there is a lot of physicality. “There’s no reason to run into anyone,” he said, “since you’re always going up, not horizontal. It’s so competitive and yet it’s self-refereed; it runs on the honor code.”
“It’s intense, but it’s laid back,” said Jack Donaldson, a junior who has been playing for three years. “It’s a sport for all levels of players, where having fun is getting better.” All three players agreed that ultimate is unique and that the thing that most sets it apart is the fact that there are no referees. Having to monitor themselves builds integrity and a sense of fairness, they said. Arguments are rare, and when they do arise, they are settled by mutual agreement. The players observed that spectors never yell at anyone from the sidelines.
The Harvard Ultimate Club is in its fourth year. Formed by Karen Van Cleef and Phillips, who played together on an adult Harvard summer team, HUC is a revival of a team Mike Girard put together for his Bromfield senior project in 2008, with Phillips as his mentor. Phillips tried to hold the team together after that, but interest waned and he didn’t have support from the school.
In 2003, Phillips, who was playing on two different ultimate teams and had three young daughters interested in the sport, started a weeklong summer camp through Gretchen Henry and Harvard Community Education, now called Spectrum. Many of the current HUC players went to the summer camp for a few years and then onto the team. Some of them will be working as assistant coaches at ultimate camp this summer.
Enough for a second team
This year there were enough players to form a second team, HUCTOO. Both teams are mixed gender with a range of ages. Harvard residents Mike Morton and Kari James have joined the coaching staff. Both play or have played in adult leagues. On June 3, HUCTOO will compete in a daylong tournament in Northampton.
Donaldson’s dad, Bob, was watching the Wachusett game. He said that when his family moved to Harvard in 2003, he and his wife were welcomed to the adult ultimate team. They would take their three kids to the games—Jack was just a bit over two years—and Bob and his wife would take turns playing. He said it was amazing to have the kids watch their parents play this competitive team sport. His daughter went on to play ultimate at Skidmore. He echoed the players in saying that having no referees gives total responsibility to the kids to behave well.
Donaldson said of Phillips, “Donnie is Frisbee in Harvard.” He talked about Phillips’ organizing the summer adult league, starting the camp for kids, and establishing a club team at Bromfield. “Don’s commitment to Frisbee has touched a lot of people,” he said.
Also on the sidelines was a group of moms. They were full of enthusiasm for the sport and had rave reviews for the coaching staff of Phillips, Morton, and James: “They coach them, but they let them figure it out,” said one of the moms. They agreed that the self-monitoring has taught the kids fairness and created healthy attitudes toward competition and that the two teams, HUC and HUCTOO, support one another with “good vibes all around.”
A no-pressure sport
The moms like that there is no pressure on the players—no college scouts, no offers of sport scholarships. One of the women commented that her son hadn’t wanted to run track, so she laughed when he told her that in two days of a recent tournament, he had run 25 miles in all, according to his teammate’s Fitbit. Another mom, looking out at the team, remarked, “They’re rockin’ their new uniforms.” When asked for their names for attribution of their comments, they chorused, “No names.” They said they wanted to just be called the Ultimate Moms and said it went with the spirit of the game: “All team, no individuals.”
Frisbee camp will run again during the end of June, and Phillips is hoping to have a summer high school team. Phillips said he would like to put together a mixed team for the fall. And he also wants to establish a middle school team. Ultimate continues to expand in Harvard.
Editor’s note: Don Phillips is the son of Press reporter Carlene Phillips.
